Thursday, October 30, 2008

I thought the Obama Network Half Hour was brilliantly constructed. Darn near perfect for what was obviously intended, I felt it got just a little hokey once or twice, but I'd have to see it again to be sure. That, no matter who you support, was CRAFT!

And while at the tube, let me add I felt the MAD MEN season ender (still not quite a sure thing for another season as I write this...) was wonderful. They built in plotline closure just in case that's that, but there were obvious threads which could pick up from where they left off. Excellent!!!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public todayREMINDER.... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls.

... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number

Monday, October 13, 2008

After 19 years, Terri declared it time to buy a new mattress. I don't know that guys even know about replacing such things - I wouldn't have thought that - but my back every morning aches pretty seriously, and it turns out that a hard mattress (like we had) is bad. We discovered some of this on vacation, in various hotels.

So, to the mattress store. This is where I feel sorry for the sellers - what can be more boring than selling a mattress? The people lie down, get up, lie down, get up, etc. I don't know what you could say that would matter. Interestingly, it took AIRLINE TICKET PURCHASE AT AIRPORT quantity of keystrokes to order it for us.

We liked one a lot. In our size (California King) it was north of... and get ready for a shock if you haven't been looking, as I haven't... SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! We passed on that one. Prices have risen in the past 19 years, it seems. And now there's technology!!! Sleep numbers. Foams.

19 years ago we simply asked a sales person at the radio station who had a mattress account to see if she could get us a deal. She did. In no time, the mattress was delivered to our new home. I don't think we even tried it out, or shopped. It was, "Can you get us a deal?" "Yes." "Okay, let's do it." (Despite what it sounds like, the mattress was a good one.)

Where do they take the old mattress?

How many mattresses are now banks?

I couldn't get the sales guy to budge on price once he landed a standard discount for us. But I DID arm wrestle two free pillows out of him (which he'd give ANYWAY.)

He did try to upsell us on the Pad-That-Kills-Cooties, but we passed.

After a week two very large guys brought the new mattress to the house Saturday. Sunday morning I awoke an hour and a half LATER than my usual automatic pop-up!!!

We went with a foam - Swedish? I thought it was a gimmick at first but, man, do I want to go back to bed! It's won-der-ful. And guaranteed for 20 years.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

If you read below a few posts, you'll see the helpful advice given me by one of Microsoft's techs. It didn't help.

I was eventually referred to an automated telephone 'help' place where, I discovered after multi-calls, that, if you answer NOTHING - i.e.: ignore all questions while holding your breath, you may be directed to a live person. But when I say nothing, I mean not even a peep, even when the questions are asked again.

I had 8 encounters over 18 days with zero results except, following instructions, I was adding and deleting things to my computer, all the while the threat of not activating XP SP3 was haunting me via pop-up balloon.

Tech 9 actually took control of my computer from India (this is a rough guess, based on his thick accent. "WHAT?" "I can't underSTAND you!" said me, more than once. After an hour and 13 minutes, he gave up - "I have exhausted all my knowledge and am unable to solve the problem," he admitted, in words that sounded only something like that. "Ken" (likely NOT REAL NAME, though that's what he said) then bumped me up to the very highest level tech, Jimmy (likely NOT REAL NAME, though that's what he said.) Jimmy went on my computer from far away and fixed it in about 3 minutes. Then he tested it several times, proclaimed it fixed, which I believe it is.

18 days, many emails, voice tree telephone frustration and 10 techs, all to validate a download. If Microsoft thinks they are too bloated, they'd be right. INternal communication must flat out suck. Several encounters brought forth acknowledgement that there have been some problems... though that sentence didn't sound that way.

Next: SKYPE, as the latest upgrade won't 'take' and the last operating version didn't work, and trying to wipe it off my computer and replace it with a much earlier version doesn't work. So far I've received one email days ago, with two "fixes." Neither worked.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Wake up, get up, walk the dog. Back for breakfast. Read the paper. About at this time Terri says, "Hey, there's a scorpion." The dog had been interested in something wher a cabinet meets the floor, and that's what it was. I go get the Scorpion Jaws of Death, a handy plastic clamp I use to pick them up while maintaining a sting free distance - I've been stung once and it was surprising how much it hurt!) Drop into the garbarge disposal for a quick ride down the drain. Back to reading about Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. Terri goes by with a broom and steps outside to the pool and then she returns and says calmly, "Baby rattlesnake on the patio." I emote. Snakes scare me more than they should - ALL snakes, but I thought this territory by the pool, 6 feet off the ground, was safe, unless some fool snake would want to climb stairs, and 'they wouldn't do that...' went my now broken thought (although I do believe it must have come up the bushes which top out at pool level; another disturbing thought for all the times I've been innocently trimming shrubs.)

A neighbor has killed a BIG rattler, but not recently. Maybe 4 weeks ago that same neighbor killed a copperhead but his property includes a creekside. I tell myself that's why he had it.

So I insist I have to confront my fears and I gather the rake and shovel and move the flowerpot and sure enough - it sure does appear to be a baby rattler with triangular head, too young for rattles, though it looks like the stub has begun.

Tiny though it was, I read that the babies come with full venom, and Googling snake bites shows some evil necrosis. You don't want snake poison.

Time to be a lot more careful. Those little reptiles blend in REALLY well. And I know momma hatched more than one... and then... there's momma.

Friday, October 03, 2008

One pundit said it best - it was a win-win, which surprised me. Palin, to her credit, wasn't lost in space; Biden didn't appear condescending or long-winded. Hard to believe this Palin is the one in the Katy Couric interview. I guess time will tell.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

I'm trapped in the house by workers who are chipping away at the mortar which has dried and cracked or left holes around windows and doors. Hopefully they'll then fill the holes and cracks. But it's odd to see people at the windows, and hear the tap tap tapping. That precludes any recording of demos (auditions) today. That - and a whopping headfull of allergy. I've been very nicely succeeding at a homeopathic remedy for the season up till today. The damn broke. My head might explode.

Watching Olbermann last night as he ran the best/worst of Palin, I noticed that she's not as bad as you might initially think (not that I think FOR ONE MINUTE she should be VP) but she has managed to pull a few deflections that worked when she obviously had no clue as what the real answer was. No, not the reading material answer, or the supreme court answer, and certainly not the foreign relations experience issue... but there were a couple times when I thought (upon further examination) that she scored reasonably well and got away with a couple.

My fear is that she'll do well tonight; or that Biden will flip out and be mean or condescending to her. The best I hope for is that we all walk away and think, "nice woman - but completely lost when it comes to important matters." Tick tock.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

I have now spoken to or emailed 5 Microsoft techs - WITH NO SOLUTION!!! And it's their software 'upgrade' which has caused all of this. Can you imagine the waste in a company which repeatedly gives advice that doesn't work - 'Do this - this will happen...' I do, it doesn't. The buck has been passed and passed and passed and passed and passed and passed. Literally. Now I am told to wait for a call from the "research team" member who will help me. What a joke.